Chapter 23

The Wastrel and the Head Knight (2)

The cold mountain wind lashed Kai’s cheeks in fierce gusts. Every time he drew closer to the Gelu Drake, it felt as though death itself were blowing toward him, bellowing threats.

... The pressure was immense. So immense that he could scarcely believe Adrian had endured it while fighting alone. Kai could not hide his trembling before the Gelu Drake’s overwhelming presence.

And when the drake fixed one eye on him, a terror that seemed to freeze his very soul engulfed him.

At that desperate moment—

“Snap out of it!!”

Adrian’s thunderous shout jolted Kai back to his senses.

‘That was...’

Dragon Fear. The aura of terror possessed by dragons. It inflicted not mere fear but overwhelming despair, and no living creature on the continent could escape it.

Dragons were the mightiest beings, reigning above all things. Before a dragon, every other creature was nothing more than prey. Kai was no exception.

But Adrian was.

Crouching low, Adrian was sprinting toward the Gelu Drake’s flank once again. Dragon Fear had not fazed him in the slightest.

Even if it was only a weakened form of Dragon Fear, how could he...?

The Gelu Drake swung its tail in a wide arc, driving Adrian away, then retreated. Kai moved to pursue it.

Just then, Adrian’s shout hammered into his ears.

“Stop!!”

Kai stopped dead. He did not ask why. He could sense it too—the aura of death creeping from the Gelu Drake as it backed away.

... Something was wrong.

Then the Gelu Drake drew a deep breath, and a bluish chill began gathering in its enormous maw.

“Dragon Breath!”

At Adrian’s shout, Kai’s eyes widened.

Dragon Breath.

It took its name from the way dragons expelled energy or matter from their mouths as though exhaling. Monsters of the dragon family were generally known to possess it. More precisely, monsters that carried dragon genetic material.

And even among them, this was a power reserved for those in whom that genetic material manifested strongly.

‘It can use a breath attack...?’

That meant the Gelu Drake possessed that much dragon genetic material. It was not called the master of the snowy mountains for nothing.

Of course, it could not compare to a true dragon’s breath. Nor, apparently, could the creature use it freely. Otherwise, there was no reason it would not have done so sooner.

In other words, the Gelu Drake was running out of options. Unable to guarantee victory against Adrian and Kai, it had finally gambled everything on one attack.

This single attack would decide who was the predator and who was the prey.

And the breath the Gelu Drake was now unleashing was a vicious, blue-tinged cold befitting the name Gelu—ice.

Ice Breath.

Even this weakened breath would erase almost anything it struck directly without a trace.

They had to dodge it. This was not something they could block or counter.

“Right now—!”

Kai shouted, but never finished. The moment the Gelu Drake opened its maw, brimming with Ice Breath, he realized how foolish it had been to think they could dodge.

The surrounding air froze rapidly. The sky darkened in an instant, as though a blizzard were sweeping in. Frost spread outward—

WHOOOOOOSH!!!

A breath of pure white ice poured forth like a waterfall.

The icy energy, shining with a cold, bluish light, froze everything it touched. The instant anything met that chill, it froze and stopped, as though time itself had halted.

The ferocious cold engulfed the snowy mountain, freezing it solid. Everything in the Ice Breath’s wake lay frozen, as though an enormous river of ice had formed.

... This was on an entirely different level from the avalanche. Cold powerful enough to snuff out life in an instant surpassed even the forces of nature.

There was no dodging it.

But could he block it?

Kai hastily raised his aura to protect himself. Even so, his whole body shook like a leaf. He could only tell himself that it was merely the chill of the Ice Breath.

And at that very moment, Adrian suddenly stepped in front of him.

* * *

WHOOOOOOOSH!!!

The chill of the Ice Breath swept over my entire body. No sooner had I crossed my arms to shield my face than my skin froze.

◆Toughened Skin[D] resists Ice Breath!

◆Toughened Skin[D] resists Ice Breath!

Translucent messages appeared endlessly before my eyes. Each time, the chill briefly receded.

But even so, Toughened Skin[D] alone could not keep the cold of the Ice Breath at bay.

CRACK, CRACKLE!

Ice crystals spread across my body in the blink of an eye. Starting at my fingertips, the ice engulfed my arms, legs, and entire body in an instant.

Have you ever seen a person freeze solid in an instant?

Probably not. It is hardly an everyday occurrence.

That is why most people imagine someone simply turning into an “ice statue.” They think the person is trapped in ice and can break free unharmed by melting it or using some other method.

But that is not how it works at all.

When a person actually freezes solid, it is not just the outside of the body that freezes. The inside freezes too. Their blood and bodily fluids freeze along with it.

As those liquids freeze, they become hard and sharp, and expand in volume.

It is no different from blades of ice forming in blood vessels throughout the body. They tear every blood vessel and cell membrane to shreds.

In other words, my blood vessels and cell membranes were being shredded right now.

The only difference was...

◆Temporarily blocking sensory nerves!

◆Using the skill ‘Regeneration[B-]’ to regenerate damaged body parts!

I was simply regenerating my blood vessels and cell membranes the instant they were torn apart and destroyed. Simply suppressing the pain by blocking my sensory nerves.

Above all—

‘Compared to the Sovereign of Bitter Cold...! This is nothing...!!’

Compared to the bitter cold unleashed by Seraphia, the Sovereign of Bitter Cold, this truly was nothing.

Seraphia’s chill was absolute. Not even the Saintess’s miracles could heal its effects, let alone this paltry ice troll regeneration. It was a horrifying, spine-chilling cold that had claimed the Hero Ian’s left arm.

Compared to that, the Ice Breath pouring over me now might as well have been warmth rather than cold.

CRACK, CRACKLE!

My frozen body was gradually turning blue.

Weakened or not, this was still a dragon’s power. I was somehow holding out with Regeneration[B-], but that was all.

Holding out was my limit. And I could not hold out for long.

More importantly, there was a limit to the damage I could inflict on the Gelu Drake. The one who could deal it a fatal wound was...

“Kai!!!”

The instant I shouted, Kai sprang off the ground. He was in decent shape, thanks to me taking the Ice Breath head-on for him. Shielding his body with aura, he escaped the breath’s range in an instant.

Then the deep blue aura in his sword rippled like an aurora. His blade looked capable of cleaving anything in the world.

And it was heading...straight for the Gelu Drake’s heart.

“Go for the neck!!”

At my urgent shout, Kai hastily twisted his blade’s trajectory, switching from a thrust to a slash.

The sudden change weakened the force behind his sword.

* * *

SLICE!

A distinct sensation traveled back from the tip of the sword.

But the cut was shallow.

... He had failed to sever the neck.

Could he have killed it if he had aimed for the heart as originally intended?

Who could say? He could not be certain. In all honesty, he doubted it.

With the drake’s enormous body measuring over ten meters, driving a sword all the way to its heart was extremely difficult. Adrian’s decision to target the neck had therefore been the best possible choice.

Pressed for time, even Kai had made the wrong call. Yet Adrian had remained levelheaded in this desperate situation.

SKREEEEEECH!!!

The Gelu Drake let out a dreadful scream.

Kai had failed to sever its neck in a single stroke, but the half-severed neck was unquestionably a fatal wound. The Ice Breath stopped pouring out.

Yet the creature was not dead.

And so the battle was not over.

Adrian was currently unable to fight. Kai had to do it.

... Could he?

He adjusted his grip on his sword.

... He had to.

He squeezed every last bit of aura from his body and poured it into the blade.

Just as Kai was about to kick off the ground, Adrian charged in like a gale.

Kai’s eyes flew wide. Adrian had clearly been frozen solid by the Ice Breath. By all rights, his entire body should have been not merely frozen but torn to shreds.

‘How in the world...?’

As Kai stared in confusion and disbelief, Adrian was busily chewing something.

The Gelu Drake was no less taken aback. It clearly had not expected Adrian to charge in. Having focused all its attention on Kai, it failed to react to him.

Adrian clambered onto the Gelu Drake’s back in an instant.

The creature’s long claws and teeth began trembling faintly, as though in a spasm. Its tail instinctively drooped low, brushing the ground. A low, uneasy growl escaped it.

There was no longer any of a predator’s confidence in that sound. Nor was there any of the imposing presence of the master of the snowy mountains.

It instinctively understood that it was no longer the hunter, but the hunted.

Adrian was the one who had taken a direct hit from the Ice Breath. Yet it was the Gelu Drake that stood frozen, its entire body rigid with tension.

Now the roles of predator and prey were unmistakable.

Adrian was the predator.

And the prey...

was the Gelu Drake.

Adrian forced his hand into the Gelu Drake’s half-severed neck. With a brutal grip, he seized its neck vertebrae.

Then he tore them out with all his strength.

CRAAACK!!

It was the moment the master of the snowy mountains finally fell to its knees...

THOOOOM!

And the moment a new master of the snowy mountains was born.